It's like reading a book by William Gibson being stoned : one crazy idea after another, and on a few occasions I considered quitting the book, but was alway curious of what he would come up with next. Maybe it's no coincidence that the book starts in Amsterdam..

The story is about the adventures of 3 generations of the Macx family in a very fast forwarding future (from now to the far future in just a century).

The book made quite an impression and entered Stross into the SF hall of fame (or maybe he already was there before the book).

Ideas/themes - in no particular order and as far as I can remember them (hoping I understood them in the 1st place ;-):

Aineko - the super intelligent cat (AI Neko)

The Singularity - the point in time where computers are too smart to be understood by humans

planet sized 'Matrioshka Brains'

a space ship which contains uploaded copies of its crew and therefore is very small

a virtual space which can be altered at will by its inhabitants

aliens (the Wunch)

other aliens whose currency is 'experiences'

Galaxy sized intelligences

alien network or routers connected by wormholes or is wormholes connected by routers

conversion of all matter (Venus, Mars - the Earth !) to 'computronium' by run-away computation

simulated child raising - pick the best outcome

having a distributed mind - spawning of 'ghosts' to do various tasks

business models as sentient entities

a house where rooms are lightyears away (ripped off Dan Simmons' farcaster')

uploading oneself into the net

regeneration of the dead - by the 'Vile offspring' - computers that took over the Solar System

multiple versions of the same person existing at the same time - spawn a copy to take risks, spawn a copy to settle down and raise a family

'utility fog' - clouds of Nano which you can command to generate whatever you like

DRM controled by the mob (called the Maffyia)

balloon cities floating in/on top of Saturn's surface

generating energy off the rotational forces of planets

an Islamic scholar ordered to spread the word in the outer solar system

he spends simulated time in a simulated paradise with lots of temptations (women) which he has to resist

sentient lobsters who build huge spaceships

always having a hot back-up ready in case you die - which allows your kids to play very rough with torture and killings..

simulated sex where you can be a woman if you're a man (and the other way around)